What Is A Good Mother In The Glass Castle Essay

When a Mother’s love isn’t love

In The Glass Castle written by Jeanette Walls, Jeannette’s mother plays a crucial part to her development. However while it may be a crucial role, it is not a positive role in her development. Her mother always seems to find a way to avoid her obligations as a mother and have her life turn out better than her children’s.

Jeannette’s mother is a prime example of the ineffectual mother there were so many opportunities for Rose Mary to be a better mother, to support her children both financially and emotionally. Rose Mary’s parenting style is nonexistent, as to say she doesn’t actually parent her children. She basically lets them go free so she can focus on her art career. The effect that is has on Jeannette is so horrible, she has no female role model, noone to shape her mind as she grows up. What is even worse is that her mother inherited a property which was worth a million dollars, money that could have allowed their family to live a proper lifestyle, without financial worry, without having to face homelessness or ridicule for

the poor places they did live in. But because her mother never sold, they grew up living by their own means. Which meant threadbare thrift shop clothes, and days without food, could have been prevented. Jeannette’s life could have been good, she could have been happy and carefree, and not have to worry about putting food on the table(like her mother should be doing), but go to school and college without struggle.
When you think if her mother had a positive or negative effect, it really depends, which is why I say there were many negative effects from her mother, with the additions of a couple positive things that she taught her daughter. The negative effects are many, like when Rose Mary took a job as a teacher but let her class do whatever they wanted, and not paying attention to her responsibilities; thus leaving her own children to make sure she kept her job, by grading the class’s work and tidying up after school. For one summer she even leaves her children alone with their drunk of a father so she can go attend classes. which is freeing for her mother but leaves Jeannette in charge of making sure that there is food, water, and a working house for her and her siblings. Rose Mary pushes her child into the role of an adult so she can go act like a free spirited college student, leaving her family miserable. It’s horrible, I actually wonder if she just doesn’t understand she has responsibilities that she can’t avoid. For example, Rose Mary bought and hid a giant chocolate bar because she could not handle being without sugar, I mean it’s not as though her children are starving for a meal or eating out of trash bins because they don’t have enough money for school lunches.
In contrast, there are a couple positive things that Jeannette’s mother instills in her, reading being one of them. Jeannette loves to read it is arguably her favorite thing to do, beside writing, and for her mother to foster her love of literature and support her in her ventures, says she is not a completely horrible mother.
Since Jeannette was a child, she was never treated as one by her mother. Her mother doesn’t understand that Jeannette is just a child, she shouldn’t make hot dogs at four, or be budgeting for the family as a young adult. It is absolutely insane how her mother has little to no regard for her daughter’s safety or sanity for that matter, I just can’t believe it. How it affects Jeannette is quite understandable though. After years of living her her mother but her mother not really being there, she wants to go to New York and fulfill her dream of going to college and being an editor. She leaves her mother, and her mother doesn’t even say goodbye, which is brutal, but inline with her character throughout the book. I just don’t get it though, how do you not say goodbye to your kid that you kinda raised, she is moving not to be seen for years, do one decent thing and send her off.
The lack of a strong mother figure is detrimental to Jeannette’s upbringing, the only people she has to look up to are characters in her books, or helpful teachers.

But the teachers don’t last long when her mother and father are constantly taking them on “adventures” to live in new places, thrusting them out of their routines and into an unknown town. Even when Jeannette’s family seems to have a good setup, like in Phoenix, her mother finds some way to ruin it. Jeannette’s mother inherits a nice house and small fortune after her mother passes away, which allows the Walls family to relax for a time, to live in an actual house close to a good school. The children, Jeanette especially, love Phoenix. However her mother soon stops paying bills, and focuses only on buying art and writing supplies without any profit from her pieces, holing herself in a room to work, leaving the children to

themselves.
Rose Mary’s actions are that of a person who is not well mentally, but she is perfectly fine, she just doesn’t want to take care of her children. She believes they are a burden and regrets ever having them. I think that her children do come to realize this in time and that when they actively try to get away and live new lives in New York. Jeannette’s mother never did much for her but Jeannette learned how make things better for herself, even if she couldn’t help her mother.